In what appears to be yet another Hindutva propaganda piece in the making, a film on Tipu Sultan has been announced. The film, titled Tipu, is produced by Rashmi Sharma and by Sandeep Singh, who also produced the biopic on RSS ideologue Savarkar, which is expected to release later this year. According to the announcement, the production house Eros International will be bankrolling Tipu and the film will be directed by Pawan Sharma.
The announcement of the Tipu Sultan film was accompanied by a short video clip that makes multiple claims which come off as Islamophobic in nature. The video clip claims that during Tipu’s time, “8000 temples and 27 churches were destroyed.” It also adds, “Four million Hindus were forced to convert to Islam and forced to eat beef.” It further goes on to claim that “more than one lakh Hindus were imprisoned” and that “over 2000 Brahmin families were wiped out in Calicut.”
Tipu Sultan was an 18th century ruler of the then Mysore kingdom.
It is unclear at present what historical sources these claims are based on. The announcement regarding Tipu comes parallel to the country-wide release of The Kerala Story, another film that has stirred controversy based on the allegations of containing anti-Muslim sentiments.
The film’s poster shows a profile image of Tipu Sultan with what appears to be black paint smeared on his face, with the tagline: The story of a fanatic sultan.
EROS - SANDEEP SINGH - RASHMI SHARMA JOIN HANDS… ANNOUNCE ‘TIPU’… #SandeepSingh [currently producing #SwatantryaVeerSavarkar, #Atal and #BalShivaji] and #RashmiSharma [#Pink] announce a film based on the life of #TipuSultan… Titled #Tipu.
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) May 4, 2023
An #ErosInternational and Rashmi… pic.twitter.com/YmIIpyb5wr